Today’s title refers to the distinctive throaty cry of the Raven. I heard it this afternoon at the reed bed near Splatt Bridge. I soon spotted the massive black bird with it’s distinctive wedge shaped tail. I always used to associate them with upland areas, I remember one time when climbing up through the mist on Cader Idris and visibility was poor and hearing that other worldly call resonating all around, that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It was just me in the mist on a mountain of legend and that unearthly sound! At that moment you could understand why they are bird of legend and mythology from different cultures!  I do  know many stories with the Raven in! One Arthurian legend has him not dying but being transformed into a Raven and of course Odin was accompanied by two Ravens.

Great birds and I know I mentioned upland areas is where you often see or hear them but we do hear and see them here in flat Frampton!

Look at those throat feathers! (not my picture)

Yesterday’s Quiz answers on a walking theme. (no quiz today)

a) Alfred Wainwright wrote Lakeland Fells and also a guide to walking the Pennine Way which everyone takes with them on the walk. I think I mentioned previously he talks about rain throughout the guide whereas when I walked it during the 76 drought I only had rain on the last day!  b) Helen Shapiro sang “Walking Back to Happiness”   c) Lou Reed sang “Walk on the Wild Side”   d) Pennine Way is 268 miles long  e) The Milford Track is the famous trail in New Zealand.

What a belter of a cold January day! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world and literally just a few yards from our door and we are into countryside. So we went for regular walk around the lakes. It is a well worn track for us! It was a slow walk because we kept meeting people for socially distanced chats! Caught a glimpse of a Treecreeper and we had the snoozing Tawny Owl pointed out to us. We wait to see if we have the forecasted snow tomorrow!

Yesterday’s Quiz answers

a) A Hare’s home is called a Form    b) A Slug has 4 noses   c) There are 7 species of amphibians in UK 3 species of newt, two frogs and two toads   d) A Dipper is the aquatic song bird  e) There are 18 species of bat in Britain 17 breed here.

Today’s quiz on walks  of course!

(I will maybe write something tomorrow of the world famous trail we walked 17 years ago)

a) Who wrote the famous guide to the Lakeland Fells?    b) Who sang “Walking Back To Happiness?        c) Complete the Lou Reed song title  “Walk on………………..”     d) How long is the Pennine Way?        e) What is the name of the famous trail on New Zealand’s South Island through Fiord land?

Yesterday’s Quiz answers on Storms

a) a Tornado over water is a waterspout    b) Texas is the state that has the most tornados c) Thor is the god of thunder and I often tell stories from the Norse myths and of course Thor appears in quite a few!  d) St Elmo’s Fire is the electrical charge seen on aircraft  e) Tornados are funnel shaped.

Today’s quiz is all on British Wild Life

a) What is a Hare’s home called?    b) How many noses does a slug have?   c) How many species of amphibian in the British Isles?  d) What is the only aquatic song bird in the British Isles (I saw one today) ?  e) How many species of bat are found in the UK?

Just finished our latest quiz league match on zoom. It was a low scoring match but we scrapped a draw! last week we scored  a lot more but came second!  I am currently working on setting match questions for a few weeks time. Of course we now have to do it virtually so we miss having a pint together afterwards.

Good to have a decent day’s weather after yesterday’s storm. A busy day here doing jobs and errands.

The Town were unlucky last night, played some great football in the second half ironically much more fluent than we were on Saturday when we won!

Today’s Quiz is on a Storm Theme!

a) What do you call a tornado that is over water?    b) Which state in the USA has the most tornados per year?   c) Who was the Norse God of Thunder?   d) The special type of blue-green lightning clings to the wing tips of most aircraft is known as what?  e) What shape is a tornado?

Storm Christoph really hit today and meant apart from me going to collect somebody’s bike to repair being inside.

One hiccup today was going over the Two Severn Bores podcast that I’ve mentioned and discovered that a chunk was missing. So even though the website might be updated soon it may be a few days before the podcast goes on!

Just getting ready to watch football. We are at Brentford where last year was the worst defeat 0-7 I have seen -AGGGGGHHHHHHH! So not that optimistic but surely it can’t be that bad can it?

Yesterday’s G.K. quiz

a) Little Owl is the smallest owl in this country-  probably the bird I’ve photographed the most! One below!  b) The Mosquito aircraft  was the “Wooden Wonder” of WW2 !   c) The names were the fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream  d) 6 Apollo missions landed on the moon  e) The Bay of Pigs was the ill fated US invasion of Cuba-a beautiful place where I have been Bird Watching. No quiz tonight because of football. COYH!!!!!

Strange sort of day today as we knew the weather was going to deteriorate. We managed to get in a walk before the mizzle and later heavy rain came in. Tomorrow looks really wet and windy with the storm!   Think it might be a writing day tomorrow!

Web site is getting closer to being revamped, I need to think about the pictures-some will stay but there will be new ones including some book illustrations!

The Test Matches between Australia and India sounded good, would of been good to watch it!

Yesterday’s Quiz on Mondays

a) Solomon Grundy was married on a Wednesday   b) Garfield didn’t like Mondays  c) Monday’s Child is fair of face  d) Doctor Christiaan Barnard was the man who became world renowned. e) Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats sang “I Don’t Like Mondays!”

Today’s Quiz is General Knowledge

a) What is the smallest Owl in Britain?   b) Which WW2 aircraft was nicknamed “The Wooden Wonder”  c) Who are Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Moth?  d) How many Apollo missions landed on the moon?  e) The unsuccessful US invasion of Cuba in 1961 is known as what?

I read that today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year (I think it was a marketing ploy by a travel company!) Although it could be argued we have had many depressing days over the last year! Still the vaccine is going well, England won the Test Match and the days are getting longer!

I came across these old  pictures below. They are pictures of me with Luton players in 2018 and 2019 I had won successive competitions when I had hospitality as part of my season ticket. The first year I predicted the score correctly and the second year I predicted the crowd. One of the pictures was in the match day programme as well -FAME!!!!!

Today’s quiz on Mondays

a)    Solomon Grundy was born on a Monday, but which day was he married?    b) Which cartoon cat has a known disdain for Mondays?  c) If Tuesday’s child is Full of Grace what was Monday’s child?  d) Who said “On Saturday I was a surgeon in South Africa very little known and on Monday I was world renowned” ?  e) Who sang “I Don’t Like Mondays” ?

A Morrissey song for today and probably apt for our world at the moment although I have to say I think he is a bit of an idiot!

We are alternating our exercise at the moment. One day it is a decent walk around Frampton Lakes and the other a cycle. Sometimes we go together but Clare often sends me off on my bike to climb some hills (she thinks I am like a dog who needs his exercise!) So today I found a new road to cycle up (for locals it was Waterley Bottom up to the Old London Road) which was beautiful. The road was muddy so tyres slipped a bit cycling up. It was a narrow road; so when I met a tractor that was coming down with a great bucket in front – there was nowhere to go so I had to drop back down and climb up again! Bike and chain will need yet another clean!

Really chuffed with the Mighty Hatters yesterday-it is good to be able to compete against teams who have just one player that will cost more than our whole squad put together. Yesterday there were three players! Such is the disparity in resources and sadly it slowly destroying football.

Yesterday’s answers from the Flower Quiz 

a) Saffron comes from the crocus    b) Gladiolus is sometimes called the sword lily  c) Daffodils of course inspired “As I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud…..”    d) a perennial is a plant that  lives for more than two years (and beyond)  e) Helianthus is also known as the sunflower!

No quiz today!

Apologies for no blog yesterday! Today’s title reflects I saw Daffodils today (a South facing border) but I haven’t noticed any Snowdrops yet!

We had enjoyable Book Club Zoom on Wednesday discussing Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin. I am always pleasantly surprised by the depth of our thoughts on a particular book. One of our group’s grandfather had been in Berlin at the same time as Isherwood!

Have enjoyed the cricket -well done Joe Root and I have football to watch this afternoon. Apprehensive about this one!

Thursday’s Answers on TV

a) Dad’s Army of course was set in Walmington-on-Sea   b) the Prisoner was filmed in Portmeirion in North Wales  c) Kings Landing was the capital of Westeros and filmed in Dubrovnik  d) HMP Slade was the prison in Porridge  e) The Daleks come from Skaro.

Today’s Quiz is on Flowers!

a) Saffron comes from what type of flower?  b) Which flower is sometimes called the sword lily?  c) What flower inspired Wordsworth’s famous poem?  d) What does the term perennial mean?  e) What is the more common name for Helianthus?

Today’s title comes from that delightfully eccentric band The Duckworth Lewis Method and the above song always makes me smile – the song is about that ball of the century bowled by Shane Warne – if you like cricket try and listen to it! I chose that title for today because I watched the Test Match from Sri Lanka this morning. I have to say sitting watching cricket on a dull January morning did my mental health a power of good! Maybe an area for future NHS prescriptions!!!!

Further good news on the sporting front – Chelsea V The Mighty Hatters live on the BBC. Might be a pasting for us but under normal circumstances I would of been there so at least now I will be able to watch it! Better than nothing although obviously it would of been good to be there with thousands of other Hatters.  Luton for the Cup!!!!!

Will write something about last night’s Book Club in tomorrow’s blog.

Yesterday’s Book Quiz answers

a) The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens’ unfinished novel   b) Michael Bond wrote Paddington (I enjoyed the films!)  c) A Study in Scarlet was the first Sherlock story published  c) Frankenstein is the Modern Prometheus  (we did this at Book Club to celebrate the bi-centenary of the publication)   d)   Bill Bryson comes from De Moines.

Today’s Quiz is on TV places

a) Which classic sitcom was set in Walmington -on-Sea ?    b) Where was the Prisoner filmed?  c) What is the capital of Westeros in Game of Thrones?  d) Where was Ronnie Barker in prison in Porridge?   e) What planet do the Daleks come from?